Our Weekend

I hope you had a great July 4th weekend.  We didn't do much different than any other weekend but it was nice having Bill home on Monday (or at least until he got a call to go play golf for the afternoon!!).  We grilled out Saturday night and it was scrumptious, especially since the squash and green beans came out of our own garden.  We were so excited!!! 

YUMM-O!!!












It took me three whole days to gather enough nerve to actually plug my new Janome into the wall and turn it on.  After reading the instruction manual Friday afternoon, I had myself convinced that a Janome rep would need to come live with us if I was ever going to use the machine.  Since that was not remotely a possibility, I convinced myself that come Monday I would venture over to the sewing shop and ask for lessons.  I chickened out!!  So again, I grabbed the intimidating instruction manual, moved my little Singer off the sewing table and plugged in the electrical cord, the foot petal and even the knee lift bar.  Good to go!!!  I mustered up the courage to flip the little on/off switch and Woo Hoo..you should have heard all the little beeps!!!

So, I thought, "so far, so good!  Surely I can figure out how to thread the bobbin and then thread the machine."  And, what do you know, I did it!!  (Thanks to the step by step instructions with illustrations, I might add.  Have I ever told you I'm a visual learner??)  Well, next think I knew I was sewing along piecing some blocks and sewing on borders and today I finished up my 2008 (yes, that's not a typo - 2008) Thimbleberries Lodge quilt top. 

That's Rudy, our daughter's border collie, guarding the top from the wind so I could get a picture. 
One UFO down (that's unfinished object for you non-quilting readers) and a couple more tops to go.  Then I'm going to have to get brave again and learn how to quilt with my new machine since I told Bill that's the main reason I needed the new machine.  I can't even begin to tell you how many tops I have to finish up with the quilting and binding but I've decided that July and August are going to be FIU (yes, that's finish it up, non-quilters) months here. 

I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Birthdays

My birthday was last week.  Besides having to work, Bill,Hannah and I celebrated at Buffalo Wild Wings.  A pretty uneventful birthday EXCEPT.....I found out that my husband is a poet.  Here's the birthday poem he wrote in my card.

Ja No Me Better Than Anyone
Ja Luv Me Like No Other
Ja No My Faults
Ja No My Strengths
Ja No Me
Janome - Buy It!!

And you better believe, I did!!!   It arrived today.  Brown showed up and left me this!

Now I just have to figure out how to use the thing!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Garden Revisited

         In May, I wrote about our hopes to have a garden that actually produces more than frustration.

So after Bill's hard work at tilling the garden plot.  I jumped in the van and did the easy work of buying the plants.

Then he did the hard work again and got all these into the ground along with some sweet corn.

God watered the garden for us yesterday and as you can see from the standing water He did a great job of it.  I, however, didn't want to slop out in the mud so I took this picture of our little garden plot from the deck.  Don't pay any attention to the acres of corn planted behind it.  That belongs to the farmers next door!!

And here are the first fruits(or veggies, LOL) from the garden.  Not enough for a good pot of beans yet but hopefully in the next day or so more will be ready and we can have some fresh from the garden beans.  Nothing else is ready to be harvested but it looks like we may actually have a producing garden for the first time in our gardening experience. 

Thanks for stopping by!! 

Myrtle Beach Revisited

Since Monday is usually laundry day here I thought while that was going on I would update all my readers (all 2 of you!! LOL) on what's been happening this past month.  June has been busy and I have some wonderful news to share but that will have to wait for another day!!  (It deserves it's own post!)

As you can see by the last post, I spent a week at Myrtle Beach with precious friends from our time living in Illinois.  I had a great time just chilling at the beach and by the pool reading, reading and reading some more.  And then there was the food!!!  Oh, my!!!!  We, of course, had seafood at both Joe's Crab Shack and Landrys.

This picture is blackened tilapia topped with etoufee, fried shrimp and barbeque shrimp I ordered at Joe's Crab Shack.  Oh, my my my my, was it ever good!!  But I have to say that my favorite restaurant was Myabi, a Japanese steak house.  It is not just gooooood food(and lots of it), it is also quite a show.

This is the volcano he made out of onion rings.  It was a really fun evening spent with special friends.

Thanks for stopping by!! 
(Sorry for the poor picture quality.  They were all taken with my phone.)

Memorial Day celebrated at Myrtle Beach

Life leads us down so many pathes. As I sat in church this morning at First Baptist Church North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I was reminded of the sacrifices made by so many that I could attend this very service. How grateful to them and especially to God I am for this freedom we take so for granted.

As I sat in church with dear friends from our seven years spent in Illinois, my thoughts were on a dear friend from our time now spent in Lima, Ohio. She is a precious lady who continues to be one who challenges me daily to "remember" the things of God and the pathes He guides us down. The pastor this morning spoke on "Stones of Remembrance". I know he was taking that subject because of Memorial Day but it is a topic I have been pondering this past couple of weeks because of my sweet friend Kathy's blog. She has reminded me lately of the many times the Bible speaks of remembrances.

Memorials were set up to recall divine visitations so that others might learn about God when they would ask, 'What do these stones mean?' (Joshua 4:6 - The Bible Knowledge Commentary) Divine visitations - isn't that a great thought? That the Creator of this grand universe would set up a time to meet with me? Wow!!

But the most prevalent use of "remembrance" in the Bible is the command to remember the Lord and His mighty deeds. As I spent the afternoon gazing out on the beautiful ocean and the amazing beauty, the precision of the tides, the wonderful sun, how could I not remember the God who made it all and who takes the time to meet me where I am and to love me unconditionally through it all. I stand amazed!!

(Photo not mine. It was taken from tripadvisor.com website. Hopefully, some of mine will follow soon.)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Mother's Day

My heart is so full this weekend. So full it keeps leaking out of my tear ducts. I'm not sure if it's because of Mother's Day or not but I will put the blame there, nonetheless. My kids are all now grown. That is really bittersweet to me right now. I love being a mom. It has been the joy of my life!

I have never been one to set goals for myself. I have always struggled with that when made to put goals on paper. I know it's said if you aim at nothing that is what you will hit. BUT, I can tell you that my one and only stated life goal was to be a wife and mom. Thankfully, I have had the privilege of achieving that goal for the past 25 years. I consider it a privilege to have been able to stay at home raising our children. I know we did without many things for that to happen but what a blessing it was.

So many changes have come in the past few years and, I know, many more are yet to come. In July, we take our baby off to Washington state for college. We will then officially be empty nesters with children from coast to coast and one right in the middle of this large country. Something tells me that my frequent flyer miles are going to go up far more quickly in the months to come.

I do love the fact, however, that later this year I will also become a mother-in-law. I'll be sharing a lot more about that as the date draws nearer. It is going to be a real fun time.

But before I close, I would be remiss if I didn't mention what a great mother I have. She has been such an encourager to me. She is such a strong woman and I love the fact that we are so close. I just wish we lived closer to each other. Here she is just a couple of weeks ago on a trail ride with some of her friends. I love you, Mom!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

And to Michael, Adam and Hannah....You mean the world to me!! I am so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. I love you with all that I am.

One More Try

This little plot of land has been sitting idle the three years we have lived here. I'm sure it's where the previous owner's had grown a very prolific garden. We have talked about using the space since we got here but, you see, we have never had very good luck with gardens.

In fact, you could very honestly say, we have had very bad luck with gardening. The first time we tried we were still living in Houston and had a draught you would not believe. Of course, everything died no matter how much we watered. The next year, still in Houston, we had floods and AGAIN everything died. So we gave up.

We even tried again after we had moved to another house in Houston but had no luck again. We decided it was much easier to buy vegetables at the grocery store!!

If you blow this picture up you will see that my sweet hubby is sticking his tongue out at me. I guess he didn't like me standing around taking pictures while he was working so hard. Go figure!!

Well, we are going to give it one more try!! We are hoping that this nice Ohio weather will be better for garden novices. We (that would be HE) tilled up the rich dark soil that looks very fertile (at least to us). He has gotten the rows all ready for the planting. And now, I'm off for the easy part.....the garden center to buy the plants.

So, if you would, say a prayer for our gardening efforts and come back soon to check in on our new adventure!!